Find the Silver Lining
by shadows99
Summary: Best friends since their college days, Jennifer and Melissa never lost contact with one another. Melissa was there the day JJ graduated the FBI academy and JJ was there the day of her goddaughter's birth. But it's a bit difficult to be there for someone from the grave. When an UnSub breaks in, leaving fifteen-year-old Cara Cyrus behind, JJ must figure out her life with Cara in it.
1. Chapter 1

Blonde hair stuck to her face, dripping icy water droplets into silvery, red-rimmed eyes. The water had once been hot, scalding even, but now, it had long since turned. Half the water sloped out of the tub when the girl stood, easily absorbed by bath mat decorating the cool tile floor.

Every movement caused a burning sensation as fresh wounds got tugged and the pink water swirled down the drain. Stepping over the wall of the tub, the blonde grabbed a soft towel and wrapped it around her small frame, covering any evidence of her work. She didn't have long now, soon, the house would be filled with the sound of chatter. The sound of laughter. The sound of happiness. The sound of. . .

"Ma'am, I need you to focus."

Her hair was still wet from the bath. How can her hair still be wet? Her grey eyes were searching, obscured by strings of blonde locks. This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't how it was supposed to go down.

"Ma'am. We need your statement. Unless you want to be arrested for obstructing justice."

"Ma'am!"

"Where is she?!" A new voice joining in with the chaos of sounds surrounding the house. Sirens, screaming, reporters, dogs barking, yelling.

"This is a crime scene! You can't go back there!"

"Yes I can. Agent Jennifer Jareau. FBI."

"What the Hell are the feds doing here?"

"Ma'am!"

A whirl of blonde hair flew past the officer, crouching in front of the teenage girl and taking in her ragged appearance with worried eyes.

"Excuse me, but this is a police investigation. You're obstructing our active crime scene." His voice was tinged with annoyance and anger. He couldn't be bothered with these two dumb blondes who thought they could come and walk around his crime scene like they owned it.

"Excuse me, but you're yelling at a fifteen-year-old girl who just witnessed a double homicide," The older blonde, Agent Jareau shot back harshly, her eyes never leaving the girl. "You've gotten all you need from her."

"Actually, Miss Jareau. . ."

"Agent Jareau," Jennifer cut in harshly.

_"Miss Jareau._ She hasn't said a word. We need to get her statement and she has been refusing to co-operate."

"She's not refusing to co-operate. She's in shock. I'm taking her with me, officer."

Cold hands wrapped around the girl's arms, pulling her to her feet and into the other's side protectively.

"No! You ca-"

"Is there a problem here?" A deep male voice cut in, stepping in front of the two blondes, his FBI vest giving away his occupation immediately.

"What is with you damn feds and interfering?!"

"Come on, sweetheart, let's go get you dried and cleaned up," The blonde whispered soothingly as she pulled the girl away from the flashing lights and sirens.

"JJ!" Another woman, dark-haired this time, came up to them. Another FBI vest.

"Emily, they were interrogating her like a criminal. . . I had t-"

"I know, Jen, I know. Hotch took you off this case for a reason. You have a personal connection," The noirette –Emily- stated calmly. "We've got her, alright, nothing bad's gonna happen now. Go back to BAU and calm down."

"Emily-"

"Now JJ."

Jennifer relented, allowed Emily to take the girl's clammy hands in her own and crouch down in front of her. "Hey, sweetheart. My name's Emily Prentiss, and you're Cara, right?"

Grey eyes widened although no words were spoken by the girl as lights continued to flash blindingly around them.

"I'm friends with JJ, we work together. She's told us all about you and your mom," Emily stated softly, toning out the chaos around them easily as her brown eyes started into grey. "I know you must be cold and tired right now, huh? How about we go get warm?"

Silvery eyes searched the woman's for any hint of dishonesty and when she found one she nodded.

"O-okay."

* * *

**Author's Note: Wow! It's been like over a year since I uploaded anything here! But I'm back now, with a Criminal Minds story. My writing style's changed a lot since my past stories (I personally, like to think that it's improved from what it once was) so I don't know what everyone will think of this one, but I really hope that you all liked this first chapter and will stick around to see what happens next! Also, if you did like this first chapter, please stick around and leave a comment to tell me what you thought/any suggustions as well as hit follow and favorite! (And yes, I do plan to actually follow through with this story. I've already written the first seven chapters)**


	2. Chapter 2

Lights glinted into silvery grey eyes, the owner wishing desperately that they would just let her close her eyes and sleep. The medics were bustling around the girl, ordering her to open her eyes every time they slipped shut while simultaneously prodding her with every medical object imaginable.

The FBI agent, Emily, was in the room over, waiting for the doctors to allow her –or anyone else- in. The girl had only suffered a few bumps and bruises on top of any damage that she had done to herself, and yet she still had been admitted for the night.

"Can I see her now?"

The light was dimmed by a figure above the girl, blue eyes showing nothing but compassion and worry.

"Oh, Cara."

That was all it took for the girl to start crying for the first time in the last twenty-four hours of trauma, reaching an IV clad hand out towards the woman. Jennifer grabbed the girls hand, careful of the IV and kissing her knuckle. "I'm here now, I promise I'm not leaving."

"JJ th-they were. . ."

"I know, Car. It's alright now, you're safe here," Jennifer soothed, sitting down on the edge of the bed by the girl's head. She brushed messy blonde locks of hair out of her face and smiled sadly.

"D-don't leave me."

"I'm not sweet girl."

* * *

"How is she?" Emily stood as soon as her eyes caught movement, worriedly staring into bright blue eyes that held oceans of sadness.

"She's. . . she just lost both her parents and everything she's ever known in one night."

"And how are you?" The noirette questioned, urging Jennifer to sit down on the barf-green waiting room couch.

"I didn't just lose my parents," The agent stated, a mask already beginning to slip onto her face as her eyes shifted from Emily's to the blank wall beside the woman's head.

"No, JJ, you lost your best friend."

* * *

**Author's note: So here's chapter two. A bit shorter then the other one, but I hope you all still enjoyed it all the same. Thank you to the two people who reviewed, followed, or favorited chapter one, and if you didn't and you have the time, please leave a review and let me know what you thought!**

**Nichole: Thank you so much for your review! I get why you thought I over did the cops attitude, and personally, I love cops and firefighters and the FBI, basically anyone who's a hero and does what they do 'cause that takes a lot of courage and strength, and I know that cops aren't actually like that but in my mind it was early (like 4am type early) and loud and stressful and the cop was probably annoyed and maybe not the nicest/most patient which is why he acted like that. ****The 'dumb blondes' he was referring to were Cara and JJ.**** I may have not done a very good job of portraying either of those things though which is my mistake. And as you said, I will do my best not to follow easy stereotypes. **


	3. Chapter 3

"I wanna leave, JJ, please. I wanna leave," the girl was practically in tears as she begged the FBI agent standing in front of her. "Please I wanna go h-home."

Jennifer winced when the girl's voice cracked on the last word and tears began spilling from her clouded eyes.

"Pl-ease."

The blonde broke, moving from her spot at the end of the hospital bed so that she was directly in front of the girl, her hands shakily finding Cara's. "I know, Car." What else do you say to someone who just lost their parents? Their life? She got to go home at the end of the day, she got to go home, process everything, and breathe. Cara didn't. Home wasn't safe anymore. Had it ever been safe? Could anywhere truly be safe in this world that they were living in?

The process when she would be released from the hospital would be a long one. Interviews, questioning, by the police and the BAU. Jennifer knew that her team would treat the girl with kindness, but could she say the same about the police? About the officer who had nearly brought her goddaughter to tears, shouting empty threats at her simply because a 2AM crime scene had been an inconvenience to his sleep schedule?

"Jay."

Jennifer looked up at the sound of a male voice, her blue eyes meeting the sympathetic ones of her long time co-worker's.

"I'll be right back," Jennifer muttered to the girl, not expecting her grip to tighten the way it did on her hand.

"Don't leave me."

"I'm not leaving, Car. I'll be right outside, okay? I'll open the blinds and you can see me through the window there."

True to her word, the agent opened the privacy blinds on the private hospital room before following Derek out. She made sure to stand in front of the glass window, in full view of the hospital room that was less than a few feet away, her calm expression faltering slightly.

"How bad is it?"

"JJ-"

"How bad is it Morgan?"

"It's bad. They found the bodies, both posed in the living room, cause of death was exsanguination. There were also. . . JJ should I be telling you this?" The man hesitated, noting the faltering look on the blonde's face.

"I need to know."

"There were also trace amounts of blood found in the bathroom but no sign that the UnSub had been upstairs or even knew that there was a second floor, perhaps because there was only one bedroom up there," Derek finished, searching his friend's face for any sign of the raging emotions duking it out in her mind.

Jennifer exhaled breathily, bringing a cold hand up to meet her forehead and squinting her eyes shut.

"JJ, what are you thinking? Don't shut me out, I'm here."

"The UnSub didn't bother check house blueprints beforehand or doing a copious amount of research meaning it was probably a crime of opportunity rather than a methodical one leading to the conclusion that there was probably only one UnSub. Have Garcia check the local records for similar crimes in the area in the past four years," Jennifer profiled, a mask slipping onto her face as she stared into the hospital room housing the only survivor.

"JJ-"

"I have to go."

"Jennifer."

"Derek, I have to go, I'm not leaving her alone right now."

* * *

**Author's Note: Hi everyone! Sorry it took me longer to get this chapter uploaded, I got distracted with school starting back up and so I've only now gotten around to editing it. But. . . I hope you all enjoyed it, and as always, please leave a follow and favorite and a review to tell me what you thought!**


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